Find the Lady
by HashtagLEH
Summary: When Danny and Jack decided to go to the meeting on the back of the tarot cards, they hadn't expected to run into Danny's last assistant, Henley. Jack makes it his mission to try and stop all occurrences of Danny exhibiting Foot-In-Mouth Syndrome...but unfortunately it doesn't work out as well as he'd hoped. Part 2 of Tricks of the Trade


"I mean, we could be meeting up with our murderer – the fact is, we really don't know anything about this meeting or even who else will be there. Really though, who invites someone to a meeting without explaining who they are? And why would they give these mysterious tarot cards as an invitation? Surely there are better ways – even normal postal mail would be better than sneaking in to the apartment and just leaving a couple of tarot cards with creepy ass pictures on them next to the couch. Not to mention…"

"Danny," Jack stopped his lover's nervous rambling with a press of his lips on his, squeezing one hand with his own. They were in the back of a taxi, on the way to the apartment listed at the back of their 'invitation', and the speed of Danny's talking had increased with each moment they got closer to their final destination. "We'll be fine, alright? If there's someone lying in wait to kill us, I have my cards that I can chop their jugular with. Stop worrying."

Danny huffed, though he calmed a bit with Jack's hand in his. "I'm not _worrying_ ," he stressed. "I'm _wondering_. Mostly why we're crazy enough to even _go_ to this meeting, even with the possibility of walking straight to our deaths."

Jack huffed a laugh. "And usually _I'm_ the dramatic one," he teased, bumping his shoulder companionably against Danny's. "It's probably just someone wanting a magic show."

"So of course they travel to Chicago to leave a vague invitation in our living room before disappearing without a trace," Danny said dryly. "No, of course – that makes perfect sense."

Jack just chuckled and shook his head amusedly, knowing that Danny wasn't going to be appeased of his worries until they actually got to the meeting and saw what it was all about.

A few minutes later, Danny let out a surprised, "Henley!" Jack looked up at the name, following Danny's gaze out the window to a woman with red hair that had just crossed the street.

"That your last assistant, then?" Jack said with a smile, knowing he was right based on the look on Danny's face. It had been three years since Henley had left, but Danny had talked about her enough that Jack felt like he knew her already.

"Yeah," Danny confirmed anyway, and pushed open the door while the car was still moving so he'd be able to catch her before she got too far away.

"Hey!" he called. "Henley!"

"Danny?" the girl said in some surprise. "Hey!"

Amusedly, Jack shook his head and paid the taxi driver while Danny and Henley talked.

"You better watch that girl," the taxi driver said in a warning, knowing voice. "She still likes your boyfriend there, you can tell. She might try to snatch him back up."

Jack couldn't help the smile that came with the warning from the good-hearted man. "It's a good thing I know where _Danny_ stands, then," he said wryly. "Thank you very much, sir."

With a solemn nod and another dark glance at Henley, the man turned back to the wheel as Jack climbed out behind Danny. After he shut the door behind him, the taxi drove off down the street.

"Oh," Jack said in surprise when he saw Henley holding a tarot card very similar to theirs in the same hand she held her coffee cup. "You got a card, too."

"Mm-hm," she nodded with a little smile, holding it up slightly.

"I can't decide if this makes it more ominous or not," Jack said thoughtfully, before shaking his head and holding out a hand. "I'm Jack – it's nice to meet you. Danny's told me a lot about you."

"Sorry I can't say the same," Henley said with a raised eyebrow, shaking his hand. "You're his – new assistant?"

Jack chuckled. "Sort of," he agreed vaguely.

"Alright, so here's what we're gonna do," Danny said, apparently not liking being silent for too long. Walking toward the door to the apartment building, he continued, "I'm gonna go inside and scope the place out; you guys wait out here – I will come back and get you. You do _not_ come inside, you…"

"Hey, Danny!" Henley called, getting his attention. With a "Yeah?" he turned his head a bit to look at her. "I'm not your assistant anymore. …Nice hair."

Jack chuckled and came to stand next to Danny at the door. "If you want to make nice with her, I'd suggest toning down the bossiness," he said low enough that Henley wouldn't hear. "She's not as capable of reading between the lines like I am, and just sees an obsessive need for control." Patting his shoulder sympathetically, he moved ahead of Danny to go up the stairs. Danny hurried along behind him.

"So, what – what _have_ you been up to?" Danny asked Henley when they got close enough not to be yelling up an entire flight of stairs.

"I think you know _exactly_ what I've been up to Danny; I saw all your 'anonymous' postings on my website." She only sounded more annoyed with Danny's question.

 _Ooh, not good,_ Jack thought with trepidation, _Not good at_ _ **all**_ _._

"You have a website?" Damn, Danny was only digging a deeper hole for himself. Jack suddenly realized that he was probably slightly blinded to Danny's social awkwardness by now – he hadn't realized until he tried making conversation with Henley that Danny really didn't have a clue how to interact with people he didn't know inside and out.

"That's good! Good for you – get the word out." Danny continued rambling. Underneath the words, Jack could hear the "I'm glad you are talented enough that you have a website for people to search through for your shows" that Danny really meant, but based on the irritated expression on her face, he suspected that Henley couldn't.

They reached the sixth floor, and stopped suddenly on the landing when they saw the apartment they were supposed to meet at, where an older man stood. In wordless surprise, they all held up their cards, asking silently if that was also the reason he was there. He looked slightly surprised to see the three of them there, but not enough for it to be one hundred percent believable.

"O…kay," the man said, "So apparently none of us was the _only_ one chosen; let me be the first one to kick my ego to the curb." He flashed them a sort of self-deprecating smile as he pushed away from the door and they moved closer.

"Uh – excuse me," Danny said in a dismissive voice to the older man as he got closer.

"Door's locked," the man said in an offhand manner.

"Is it?" Danny said arrogantly, not pausing on his way to the door. "I'll check." Jack chuckled a bit and leaned against the wall to watch Danny practicing his lock picking. It didn't hurt that he got a fine view of his backside, either, of course.

"You!" the older man said to Henley. "Now, hold it – don't tell me. Helen? No," he corrected himself. " _Henley_." Then he grinned at her, and Jack wasn't going to mention that it was on her coffee cup, seeing how the older man had already begun to develop a bit of a crush on the girl, but then Danny turned his head back slightly and told her anyway. Jack rolled his eyes a bit, even though Danny couldn't see it, because it was just like Danny to not know when he didn't need to reveal how someone did something.

"Thanks for keeping me honest," the older man said, turning slightly in Danny's direction, and Jack thought he might have been the only one to see the irritation in his eyes. "That wasn't mentalism, by the way; that was an observation. The second observation"—the irritation lessened and his eyes softened as he looked at Henley—"you are… _beautiful_."

"Danny, you want me to do it?" Jack called, hopefully forestalling any comment Danny might have made right then that would completely obliterate any chance of getting back in Henley's good graces again.

"No, I've got it," Danny insisted, though Jack saw that his hands weren't as sure as they normally were. He suspected that the reason for that lay in the redheaded girl a few feet away from him that he hadn't seen for a couple of years.

"Told you, it's locked," the older man said with a tone and manner of "I told you so".

"Nothing's ever locked," Danny and Jack both said simultaneously, and there was a moment of silence from the other two – possibly surprise, but probably just not knowing how to respond to that.

"Uh, hi – I'm Jack," Jack introduced himself to the older man, sticking out a hand for him to shake. Hopefully if he kept him occupied, Danny wouldn't stick his foot in it.

"Merritt," the older man greeted, glancing between him and Danny in a slightly suspicious sort of manner while shaking his hand.

"I've been teaching Danny how to pick locks recently, but it's still a work in progress," Jack explained with a wry smile.

"It can't be _that_ hard, surely?" Merritt said doubtfully, glancing between the two other men.

"Apparently too hard for _you_ to handle, considering that you were just standing here, waiting for it to _magically_ open when we arrived," Danny snarked, still fiddling with the tools.

"Danny, I can do it, you know," Jack told him.

"No – it's _fine_!" Danny replied bitingly. "I've got it!"

Jack only sighed to himself, knowing that Danny was determined by this point and nothing he could say was going to change his mind. He also knew that Danny wouldn't be nearly so stubborn if Henley wasn't there, and to a lesser extent Merritt, because there would be no airs then.

"Alright, hey hold on," Merritt suddenly said, holding a hand to his head and pointing the other vaguely towards Danny. "I am sensing…that you are…a control freak?"

"Have we _met_ before?" Danny snapped, turning his head slightly and letting his hands rest for a moment.

Henley scoffed. "It doesn't take a _mentalist_ to figure that one out, Danny," she informed him. "You _are_ a control freak."

Jack could feel himself beginning to worry that Danny would snap at this, because while he knew that Danny wasn't exactly _ashamed_ of his controlling personality, the way that Henley had said it implied to him that he should've been. He wasn't certain how Danny was going to react to the comment, especially after knowing how Danny didn't want to always be putting his foot in his mouth where Henley was concerned. Danny wanted to repair the frayed relationship; Jack could see that. But the problem was that Danny didn't know _how_.

But, Danny only said, "Well, I take that as a compliment."

Henley laughed derisively and looked at Merritt. "Only _he_ would take it as a compliment."

While she spoke, Jack moved over to be next to Danny and said quietly to him, "You take care of this. I can deal with the door, and we can practice this more later, alright?"

Wordlessly, Danny agreed, rising to his feet and hearing Henley's comment. "Okay, great – good! Another compliment," he said in a satisfied tone, and Jack alone could hear how the emotions fell flat – Danny didn't like not having the last word, so he'd say what he could to get it and to not show if and when he was hurt.

"Okay, so…" Merritt said, looking between Henley and Danny, " _That's_ why you guys are no longer a couple."

"A couple?" Danny and Henley were both honestly surprised by this, as they hurried to explain.

"Oh, we were _never_ …"

"We were _never_ a couple…"

Henley explained awkwardly with, "He used to…saw me in…half…"

"She was a very good assistant," Danny was trying to flatter her to show his apology when Jack came over to them.

"But, I was too fat for Danny," Henley interjected, and Jack could see the hurt feelings still in her eyes, even after three years. He felt sorry for her, because he could see that she really had loved Danny – still did, really – but Danny either hadn't noticed or didn't know how to show what he felt. He briefly wondered what would have happened had he not helped Danny in that bar right after she'd quit.

"No, I said that _one_ time, because of the – trap door," Danny insisted, looking just embarrassed enough that Jack could see it, but he didn't think that the others would, not knowing him as well or how to read his emotions. Well, maybe Merritt would notice, being a mentalist and all, but certainly not Henley.

"You built that door – _this_ size," Henley said, motioning with her hands to emphasize her point. " _No_ one could fit through there – _no one_."

"Sorry; Danny here has a bad habit of expecting the impossible, because he thinks that literally _anything_ is achievable," Jack apologized for his lover before Danny could say any more to offend someone.

"Losing a little bit of weight to fit through a trap door is _not_ impossible," Danny insisted, and Jack wanted to smack his head – or probably Danny's – because surely anything he could have said would _not_ have been worse than that.

"Danny," Jack interrupted. " _Shut up_."

Danny pursed his lips, but he kept quiet, and Jack felt the need to explain to Henley, "You know how Danny is – you worked with him. I'm not trying to excuse what he said, but he really didn't mean to offend you. He just doesn't think before opening his mouth. But the night that you quit, he was so out of tune with his surroundings that he accidentally walked into a gay bar. So I think you can tell from that how regretful he was." He chuckled a bit at her surprised look, and ignored Danny's indignant muttering next to him.

"So," he said, clapping his hands together and looking at all of them with expectation. "Door's unlocked now. Anyone feel like looking with me to see what's behind the curtain?"

...

 **I was going to have Merritt and Henley find out about Danny and Jack's relationship in this one, but it just didn't flow right, and I decided to leave off here. I think in the next one I'll have them find out, though I can't say for sure.**

 **I'm sorry, I think I portrayed Henley as a bit of a needy bitch here, and that's not what I'm trying to write her as at all. I really like Henley, and there won't be any bashing of her or anything – I just think that these comments and little scenes in here would make sense in the context. Later she'll be completely over Danny, so there's no need to worry about a psycho coming loose. ;)**

 **Thanks for reading!**


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